It's Snow Joke

...a week’s skiing and not a single broken bone or twisted joint. "Impressive for you Aidan!" I hear you cry.....Admittedly I didn’t go skiing or snowboarding once, and there was no snow or ice underfoot in the village (we had glorious weather all week). That said I did nearly kill myself when I ran 8KM from Cauterets uphill to the Pont D’Espagne. It took a full 50 minutes and a good dollop of stubbornness to complete it at the end. The 8KM downhill however (done in 35 minutes), was much more enjoyable. Some other good things were a much cherished cold pint of Guinness whilst babysitting sleeping twins, and meeting a new person who joined the group (of 21) this year – 43 year old Fabrice from Angers. A thoroughly splendidly chap. However for me the highlight of the week was lots of time with Maxime. He had a great time with his cousins from Toulouse, he ate well (especially if it was pasta with tomato ketchup followed by chocolate yoghurt), slept well, and was well behaved in the main.

On the downside, at the age of 2 and still completely unable to swim, he did receive his first warning from a lifeguard about “bombing” when entering the hotel swimming pool. I think what really got the lifeguard annoyed was the fact the Maxime “bombed” even when there were people present... on at least two occasions he landed in the middle of a private conversation between a couple of grannies who were far from impressed by his unannounced arrival. Quite clearly I blame the parents, although I challenge anyone to keep a straight face when scolding a small child with such a huge grin on his face splurting out the word “pardon” without really understanding what it means. Some of the other low points of the week were evening meals that started at 10PM, a poor internet connection (how I longed for Budapest airport), a speeding ticket on the Thursday and a disastrous ride with Pich when I did finally arrive at the stables (I managed to escape for half a day to ride my horse although with hindsight I should have stayed in bed that day). Overall I can say that I was happy to go on holiday, and I was also happy to come back.

I’m now on the verge of going back to work tomorrow. At some stage between now and my flight to Amsterdam at 6.50AM tomorrow morning I’ll try and sort out the most important of the 278 emails that came in last week. After Amsterdam it will be the UK on Tuesday and a couple of days in Budapest. With a bit of luck I’ll be working from home on Friday although that currently seems like a long way off.